TNF and arthritic joint disease: A marked reduction of the global arthritis score (1.8±3.3 vs. 7.0±9.9 P = 0.010) and of the proportion of patients with a global arthritis score >7 (3/28, 10.7% vs. 14/44, 31.8%, P = 0.041) was observed in patients treated with TNFα inhibitors, compared to the 44 patients treated with conventional synthetic DMARDs only.